Roman Polanski to Make Feature Film of Famous Wrongful Conviction Case in France….

Prior to my speaking engagements today in Krakow, Poland, I spent some time yesterday at the Oskar Schindler Factory Museum. There, I learned that filmmaker Roman Polanski spent time in the Jewish Ghetto in Krakow as child before escaping. At the museums were moving letters Roman had written as an 8-year old describing life in the Ghetto.

Upon returning to my room, I found this story that Polanski will be making a feature film of the wrongful conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, known as “The Dreyfus Affair” in France (see book about subject here). I found this connection fitting given Polanski’s background:

Roman Polanski announced his next film would be a period espionage thriller based on the Dreyfus Affair, a turn-of-the-20th-century miscarriage of justice soaked in the era’s anti-Semitism. Captain Alfred Dreyfus was the first Jewish officer to be appointed to the French army’s general staff. Brilliant but unpopular with his peers, he was accused of high treason in 1894 when a German spy made off with French military secrets. Dreyfus was scapegoated and sentenced to life in prison, fueling populist anti-Semitic sentiments across the country. The facts would ultimately reveal that he had nothing to do with the betrayal, and his exile became a cause célèbre for those who demanded justice.

“I have long wanted to make a film about the Dreyfus Affair, treating it not as a costume drama but as a spy story,” said Polanski, who is calling his film D, in a statement. “In this way one can show its absolute relevance to what is happening in today’s world — the age-old spectacle of the witch-hunt of a minority group, security paranoia, secret military tribunals, out-of-control intelligence agencies, governmental cover-ups, and a rabid press.”

Polanski will direct a screenplay written by Robert Harris (The Ghost Writer), and production is scheduled to begin in Paris by the end of this year. Casting has yet to begin.

Dreyfus’ ordeal was most famously chronicled onscreen in 1958′s I Accuse!, in which José Ferrer played the heroic Capt. Dreyfus.

One response to “Roman Polanski to Make Feature Film of Famous Wrongful Conviction Case in France….”

Thanks for the heads up , Mark .
I Accuse is not available @ Netflix , but ▼
The Life of Emile Zola (1937 NR 116 minutes) is.

Paul Muni stars as French writer and social activist Emile Zola in a biopic that won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (snagged by Joseph Schildkraut, who plays Capt. Alfred Dreyfus).The film tracks Zola through his friendship with Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff), his efforts to expose social ills that plagued France’s lower classes, and his battle against the anti-Semitic scapegoating of Dreyfus.